On Thursday, February 27, 2025, the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority (UDA) approved selling its Riverside Drive property (815 Riverside Drive) to Mercer University as the first step in a major redevelopment of the area. Mercer University will move their Medical School to the site, and that will serve as the catalyst for the development of hotels, lofts, restaurants, and retail space. 

“It is our goal to continue reactivating unused spaces of our urban core, providing people with additional living space, opportunities for continued educations, and more,” says Alex Morrison, UDA Executive Director. “This is an exciting time for this area of Downtown, from all the work coming along First Street, down Riverside Drive, and near the pedestrian entrance of the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. 

“This will provide much-needed housing in the area and will tie in directly with our work across the street on the site of the old hotel and at the end of Riverside Drive with the East Bank Development,” says Mayor Lester Miller. “Our city along the Ocmulgee River and First Street is about to undergo a major transformation.”  

“The Mercer University School of Medicine’s 40-year-old facility was fully adequate to meet its needs when the school opened in 1982, but those needs have changed dramatically,” said School of Medicine Dean Jean R. Sumner, M.D., F.A.C.P. “The Macon campus has grown from 96 M.D. students originally to 240 M.D. students today. We have added Ph.D. and master’s-level programs as well. More and better instructional and research space is required to accommodate a growing number of students, scientists, technicians, and graduate students, as well as more advanced equipment and technology.” 

Mercer President William D. Underwood said that trying to replace the existing medical school facility on the main campus would be difficult, due to space limitations. Perhaps more significantly, he said, relocating the medical school to the downtown site will create an opportunity to have a transformative impact on the broader Macon community. 

“Developing a riverfront home for the Mercer University School of Medicine seizes a unique opportunity to construct a stunning new facility designed to meet the needs of a growing student population with 21st century technology at an important gateway into Macon,” Underwood said. “It will also attract related residential, retail, and hotel development to what will become a vibrant and attractive new entry point into downtown Macon. The overall impact on downtown Macon will be transformational, in building on the highly successful revitalization efforts of the past decade.”  

“The redevelopment of this site will serve as a “bridge” to the Ocmulgee River and East Macon, and as an extension of Downtown, has long been planned, from early stages of downtown revitalization through each version of the Macon Action Plan,” adds Morrison. “Development will allow Riverside Drive to become a better gateway for our community and allow the site to be an attractive trailhead for the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail.” 

Assembly of Riverside Drive property began in the early 1990s as a partnership between the City of Macon, Bibb County, Peyton Anderson Foundation, NewTown Macon, and the UDA.Full assembly was completed in 2011, and Macon-Bibb County took the property for remediation purposes before turning it over to the UDA for economic development purposes. 

This redevelopment will complement the potential future development of a new conference center and hotel at 108 First Street (the site of the abandoned hotel that was imploded on January 1, 2025), as well as the East Bank development along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive across from the Macon Coliseum.